New Beginnings News

Adoption News from New York:

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24th Annual Family Picnic

New Beginnings Family and Children’s Services 24th Annual Family Picnic Saturday, August 21, 2010 at Sweet Hollow Presbyterian Church, Melville, NY from 11:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. R.S.V.P by August 14th. Please bring your lawn chair, blanket, umbrella or Tent to enjoy the Picnic.

Click here to print a flyer and reservation form

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24th Annual Holiday Party

We had a great time at our 24th Annual New Beginnings Holiday Party which took place on December 6th at Manor East Caterers in Massapequa. We hope our families did, too! Seeing all of the children grow every year in their loving families reminds us of how important our work is, and makes us strive to do better. We want to offer our sincere appreciation to Stephen and Nanci Loccisano, Lisa Christiansen, Fred Ford and the rest of our dedicated adoptive families who worked so hard to organize and host the event. We couldn't have done it without you!

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2008 Summer Picnic

New Beginnings hosted its 23rd Annual Family Picnic on August 9th, 2008 at Sweet Hollow Presbyterian Church in Melville, NY. Over 200 people attended this fun-filled event. The weather was great, and it was wonderful to see so many of our New Beginnings families, those with their children already here, those who are waiting and those who are just beginning their journeys in adoption. It was especially gratifying to see how beautifully all of the children are growing in their families!

New Beginnings would like to thank the following picnic organizers and volunteers, without whom our picnic would not have been such a great success: Steve and Nanci Loccisano, Nick and Maria Fromigia, Bill and Kathy Ford, Lisa Christiansen, Matt and Laura Balkam, Vincent and Ilona Pepe, Ken and Stacy Brickel, Ken and Christine Krieger, and Bill and Seirin McCoy.

We especially want to give a very special THANK YOU to Camie Barz, who tireless worked for months to gather donations and make gift baskets for the day's auction to benefit needy children around the world. $600 was raised thanks to her amazing efforts and the families won some amazing prizes! Hope to see you all at next year's picnic!

Here's some photos from the picnic!

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New Beginnings Celebrates the 2008 Year of the Rat

On Saturday, February 2, New Beginnings celebrated the Asian New Year at the Super Grand Buffet in Baldwin, NY. Over 150 people attended and all enjoyed the food, fun and the laughs. But most of all the children enjoyed the crafts and in particular, walking on the bubble wrap which made the sound of fire crackers. We have so many people to thank for all of their hard work, dedication and for their many years of support in making this event a success. Thank you to the Hromada family, DeChiara family and the Mazzie family who give of themselves year after year. Also a special thanks to our families who donated raffle prizes; the Malcangi family, the Dorfman family, the Ryan family, the McNerney family, the Sinkoff family, the Limmer family, the Loccisano family, the Kahn family, the Barz family, the Zapken family and the McMahon family. We can't wait for next year!

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Adoption News from Florida

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Florida Holiday Party

Sunday, December 14, 2008 brought a fun filled Holiday Party for many families here in sunny Florida. Rob and Anita Irons offered their church hall and helped us set up and clean up, everyone brought great food and treats for desert and Santa found his way to our party and made a lot of little children very happy. There were proud Grandparents and even prouder parents. All the children are growing so much it was great to see them and as usual, everyone had a very joyous and happy day. We wish everyone a very happy Holiday Season.

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Other News:

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Joint Council Online Webinar

Joint Council will be hosting a January Webinar for prospective and adoptive parents on the Role of the U.S. Government in Intercountry Adoptions.

This Webinar will occur January 29th from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Joint Council will be joined by Karen Eckert from U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services, Bill Bistransky from the U.S. Department of State and Donna Campagnolo from the National Benefits Center. PAPs are greatly encouraged to participate in this interactive session to learn how they can advocate for their adoptions and when possible, avoid unnecessary delays.

We also hope that this Webinar will provide a service to our Member Organizations by teaching PAPs about the responsibilities and decisions in the hands of the U.S. Government, versus an individual adoption service provider. To that end, we kindly ask that you share the information about this event with your families in the hope of increasing the awareness of those going through the adoption process. Please feel free to share the attached Webinar flyer; we also encourage agencies and families to send this flyer to their local parent support groups such as Families with Children from China.

Registration, at a cost of $20 per family, is open from today until January 21 (if paying by check) or January 23 (if paying online). Complete registration instructions, as well as additional information about this session, can be found on our Webinar page at www.jcics.org/Webinars.htm. Adoption service providers are also welcome to participate in the January 29th session at a cost of $20 per practitioner.

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USCIS Fees
As of August 1, 2008, USCIS raised it's fees for I-600A and I-800A filing to $750.00, plus $80.00 per set of fingerprints. They will now allow 1 free extension of fingerprints and I-600A. Currently the fee for the I 824 form is $340.00 and the N600 is $460.00.

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FRED FORD’S BOOK IS NOW AVAILABLE!
Fred Ford, one of our very own adoptive parents, recently became a published author! The book is titled “A Gift for Lila Rose: A China Adoption Love Story” and it is due for official release on November 22, 2008 but is currently available on all major on-line booksellers including amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, target.com, and the publisher’s website www.publishamerica.com. The book is a memoir pertaining to Fred’s adoption (with wife Dorothy) of their daughter Lila Rose from China, and the story of the subsequent movie Fred produced (“Lila Rose Comes Home at Last”). Congratulations to Fred and stay tuned for a future book signing event!

 

 

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Natural Born Citizen Act
A bipartisan bill (S. 2128) was introduced to the Senate on February 25, 2004. Senator James Inhofe (R-OK), Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Senator Don Nickles (R-OK) introduced this bill with the hopes of allowing children adopted abroad by U.S. citizens the same rights as native-born children. This would include the right to run for the President of the United States. We will keep you posted as this bill progresses. To view a copy of the bill and the floor statements go to the Joint Council on International Children's Services website.

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Tax ID Number
The time of year for preparing Income Tax Returns is approaching. At times, adoptive families will have their child join them during a tax year, but have not received a Social Security Number for the child by the time they are preparing their tax returns. HAVE NO FEAR! The IRS IS HERE! Families may apply for a Tax ID Number for just this circumstance. This number may be used only once (it is expected that you will have a SS# by the following return). Contact your IRS at www.irs.gov and download form W-7A. It takes a while to get the number, so apply as soon as possible.

For Korean Adoptive Families Only: Be sure to send in a copy of your child's permanent resident card with the application or the IRS may not process it.

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Certificate of Citizenship
There are two types of visas issued for families where a final order of adoption was completed overseas.

The IR3 visa is issued to families where the child is adopted abroad and the parents have seen the child at least once either before or during the adoption process in the foreign country. If you received an IR-3 visa through the country you adopted from, then you will receive your Certificate of Citizenship within 45 days of arriving home. The USCIS is asking that you give them the full 45 days prior to making any inquires. If at that point you haven’t received it, the number to call for the National Customer Service Center through the USCIS is 1-800-375-5283. Please note that some families have received an IR-4 visa due to the fact that only one parent traveled to the country to pick up the child. In this case you will need to readopt in this country and then apply for citizenship for your child.

The IR4 visa is issued to families where the foreign country does not issue final adoptions or the family has come home with a final adoption, but one of the parents has not seen the child either before or during the adoption process. In this case, the family will have to readopt in this country through the state and county where they live and then apply for the Certificate of Citizenship (N-600 form with USCIS).

To read more information about this issue you can go the the U.S. State Department web site: www.state.gov/m/dghr/flo/rsrcs/pubs/7321.htm